RUMBLE—!
Lightning struck from a cloudless sky.
Creed stood looking down at Rohan, who lay alone in the infirmary.
'What the hell is he?'
Creed could not make sense of him at all.
Starting with Hans, who had been a member of the squad when Rohan arrived, and ending with Rainer, seven people had died by Rohan's hand.
If the disappearance of Goto was also Rohan's doing, that made eight.
Considering that not even a week had passed since his arrival, he was practically a murderous demon.
'He didn't even try to hide the fact that he killed Rainer.'
Seeing the poison left in plain sight had been almost absurd.
Did he trust the other squad members? Creed himself?
Shupern? Or all of them?
Creed could not know what was going on inside the boy's mind... but one thing was certain. Everyone was being swept along by Rohan.
Creed himself had been unable to shake the feeling that, at some point, Rohan had begun sweeping him along as well.
'Even the famously cold Shupern...'
The man who had killed Rainer was right in front of him.
Yet Shupern was letting him live and had even ordered Creed to help him?
Creed had no idea what they had discussed on the day Rohan first appeared.
From his perspective, however, far too much made no sense.
'All I need to do is carry out my orders.'
Creed decided to stop thinking about it.
Soldiers were not meant to think too deeply in the first place.
There was an order, and all one had to do was obey it.
- Rohan said the Noxis spies would gather sometime this week. Help him if there is anything you can do.
- If the spies don't gather within two days... kill him quietly.
Creed had received two orders.
Help root out the spies.
Or kill Rohan.
Creed looked down at his hands.
In his left hand was the potion Shupern had given him, while a dagger was strapped to his right thigh.
He did not know what future awaited Rohan, but it would be decided in two days.
All Creed had to do was obey his orders.
'What a lucky bastard.'
To be treated with such an expensive potion.
Pop. Creed removed the stopper from the potion.
Using a potion that ordinary people would never even see to treat a soldier was highly unusual.
It must mean Shupern considered Rohan that important.
HISS— As Creed poured the potion over Rohan's wound, acrid steam rose and the injury rapidly closed.
Rohan's wound would have allowed him to get up soon even without the potion, but there was a great difference between being completely healed and not.
When Creed had poured out about half the potion, color returned to Rohan's face and his breathing steadied.
Creed replaced the stopper on the half-full potion bottle.
"Mmm."
Rohan soon opened his eyes.
His eyes glittered in the soft light reflected from the burning torch.
Anyone might have been startled to see Creed the moment they woke, but Rohan merely blinked as though he had expected it.
There was no doubt he was a strange child.
"How long was I asleep?"
Especially when that was the first thing he asked upon waking.
SHHHH—.
For the first time in a while, rain began pouring over the camp.
***
There was not much to do in the unit on a rainy day.
They did not run ten laps around the training ground or perform basic drills.
The Fourth Squad was also spending the time in its own way.
Creed was polishing his sword, while Kaisen lay on his bed and whistled.
Johanna turned the pages of a swordsmanship book worn nearly to pieces.
Having returned from the infirmary, Rohan sat on the edge of his bed, lost in thought.
Suddenly, he heard soldiers talking outside the Fourth Squad's tent.
"Rainer is dead and Goto is missing. How many people have died since that bastard Rohan arrived?"
"Obviously Rohan killed Rainer too."
"How? Rainer was much stronger."
"They say he was poisoned. He must've put poison in his food or used a poisoned needle. Cowardly bastard."
They spoke as though they wanted to be heard, their voices carrying through the closed tent into the Fourth Squad's quarters.
Everyone raised their heads and looked at Rohan, but Rohan himself showed no particular reaction.
"Why? Rainer could've been a spy."
At the comment from a third person farther away, Rohan looked toward the entrance.
It was the first reaction he had shown.
'That kind of rumor is going around?'
Rohan kept his eyes on the entrance and focused on the voices beyond it.
The men outside continued arguing over him.
"A spy?"
"Yeah. I heard rumors in the other squads that Rohan is rooting out spies. That includes Hans, who died."
"Rainer, a spy? Hmph. What nonsense."
"They really found poison on Hans, didn't they? If that's true, Rohan is a hero who saved us."
"A hero, my ass. He's just a murderous demon. The number of people who've died in this unit since he arrived......."
When they settled in as though they intended to keep talking, Kaisen shot upright from his bed.
He shouted toward the entrance of the tent.
"Fuuuck, you're loud enough to kill a man. Shut up, you bastards. Let me sleep."
"......."
The moment they recognized Kaisen's voice, everything outside went silent.
No one in the unit wanted to become entangled with Kaisen without good reason.
Once it was quiet outside, Kaisen looked at Rohan with a triumphant expression.
"......."
"...Hmph."
When Rohan showed no reaction, Kaisen lay back down and pulled the blanket over himself.
With the surroundings quiet again, Rohan slipped to his feet.
He picked up the half-full potion from the cabinet and looked at Creed.
"I can use this, right?"
Creed shrugged.
Rohan tucked the potion and a stray potato inside his robe, then flung open the tent flap.
Everyone nearby turned to look at him, the emotions in their eyes all different.
Most gazes were hostile.
Here and there, he also saw curiosity.
It seemed the rumor that Rohan was executing spies was not entirely baseless.
'This is troublesome.'
He did not care whether they showed hostility toward him.
But the fact that rumors concerning spies were spreading did concern him.
Rohan walked on without paying attention to their gazes.
Because of the rain, almost no one was active outside the tents.
Rohan headed for the supply warehouse.
When he lifted the tent flap, acrid dust rose, suggesting no one had come or gone.
In a corner, he found Goto sweating and groaning.
Rohan had coated the deer's leg with enough poison to keep him bedridden for another two days.
He opened Goto's mouth and poured in the potion.
Gulp, gulp, gulp.
The moment the potion entered his mouth, Goto's tightly scrunched face relaxed.
His groans subsided, and after about five minutes, Goto slowly opened his eyes.
When he saw Rohan in front of him, he recoiled in horror.
"Mmm. Eek! F-fuck! Rohan!"
"Shh."
Rohan pressed an index finger to Goto's lips.
At the same time, he held a razor-sharp dagger before Goto's eyes.
Goto swallowed and fell silent. Rohan spoke quietly.
"Sleep well?"
Goto stared at him in disbelief.
"You crazy bastard. You used monkshood..."
He could not finish.
Rohan had searched inside his robe and tossed him a potato.
"What is this... a potato?"
"I dug beneath the willow tree behind the Third Squad and found a whole pile."
"What?"
Goto's eyes widened.
The corner of Rohan's mouth twisted coldly.
"You've been stealing food from the food warehouse every night, haven't you?"
"W-what?"
"You weren't satisfied with filling your own belly, so you smuggled it outside the unit too."
"H-how do you know that...?"
Gasp. Goto covered his mouth at once.
The moment he asked how Rohan knew, he had practically confessed.
His mind was not working properly after he had just woken up.
Rohan thought as he watched Goto.
'He's soft.'
Goto had been stealing food for his younger siblings in a nearby village.
Rainer had known and turned a blind eye.
Having absorbed Rainer's memories, Rohan had merely recited what they contained.
"I'm sure the other starving soldiers will be delighted to learn about this."
"W-wait. It was for my siblings......."
"That's none of my concern. And I don't think the starving soldiers will care either, do you?"
Rohan looked over Goto's expression and continued.
"Don't you have to live a long life if you want to keep feeding your siblings?"
"W-what do you want?"
After his eyes darted around, Goto finally spoke.
Hearing the answer he wanted, Rohan smiled inwardly.
"Return to the unit right now and tell them you saw an assassin wearing a Noxis uniform on the night you stood watch."
"A-an assassin?"
Rohan nodded.
"A poisoned needle fired by the assassin grazed you, and you survived by a miracle."
"Ah......."
Sending assassins to kill specific targets was a tactic both Noxis and the Carnia Empire sometimes used.
'The rumor that Rainer was a spy must not spread.'
The Noxis spies did not know that Rainer was one of them.
They operated in disconnected cells while concealing their identities.
If they learned that a spy had been caught, they would become wary and might not appear at the gathering.
He could not allow everything to fall apart now.
Goto spoke in a trembling voice.
"Did you kill the Deputy Platoon Leader?"
At Goto's question, Rohan's smile vanished.
"What are you talking about?"
Rohan spoke with an expression of genuine disbelief.
"The Noxis assassin killed Rainer. With a poisoned needle coated in monkshood extract."
"......."
"Right?"
Goto's pupils trembled violently.
He stared at Rohan, who was forcing him to lie as though it were nothing, his eyes perfectly round.
His vision kept blurring. It seemed tears had gathered in his eyes.
'Crazy bastard.'
Their difference in size made Goto think he might have a chance if he attacked, but Rohan's unique, oppressive air weighed him down.
Besides, even if he said Rohan had killed Rainer, who would believe him?
The gap between Rohan and Rainer had been immense.
In the end, Goto bobbed his head in agreement.
***
By afternoon, the mood in the unit had changed.
Goto's testimony had thrown the once-peaceful unit into turmoil.
No official unit directive had been issued, but some companies were conducting drills to prepare for assassins or reinforcing their guard shifts.
- Rohan. I'm sorry I doubted you.
- I thought you'd killed Rainer... Ha ha. It never made sense in the first place.
The soldiers' attitude toward Rohan also changed.
Rohan did not care either way, but the most encouraging result was that the soldiers' attention had shifted from spies to assassins.
SHHHHH.
Rain was still pouring outside.
Rohan pulled up his robe and headed for the training ground.
The rain had turned the dirt to mud, and no one else was training nearby.
Rohan stopped before a large tree.
Sword marks covered it, perhaps because it was sometimes used for practice.
Rohan closed his eyes and focused within his body.
Thump, thump.
His heart pounded powerfully in the left side of his chest, and to its right...
THUMP!
He felt another heart.
He had begun to feel it at some point as he killed people and absorbed their memories.
It had certainly felt alien, but he had not known what it was.
'So this was a Mana Heart.'
Taking Rainer's memories had helped him enormously.
Thanks to them, he learned that this was a Mana Heart and how to circulate mana.
They said an ordinary person might spend an entire lifetime without ever awakening to mana.
Could it have been thanks to absorbing memories? Rohan had formed a Mana Heart without making any particular effort.
What remained was to accumulate and release mana.
'Mana is a prerequisite for the Swift Sword.'
Without the ability to use mana, the technique was worthless.
He had not the slightest intention of abandoning a technique he had worked so hard to obtain.
Thump, thump.
With his eyes closed, Rohan focused on the place where his heart lay.
He felt its rough beating.
Beside the place where his heart lay, he sensed another heart.
An immature heart that had yet to receive power.
Still focused within, Rohan felt the power around him.
Mana floating in the air.
The source of all energy in creation.
To gather that power into his heart...
SHHHH—.
Around the other heart, power floated like air suspended in empty space.
Rohan slowly began rotating that power.
Slowly around the heart... and then faster and faster.
Then something astonishing happened.
Power was gathering around the second heart.
As the rotation accelerated, the power rushed toward the heart as though being sucked in.
THUMP!
The second heart beat, and Rohan opened his eyes.
He felt a new strength throughout his body.
The heart was still rotating, drawing in all the energy around him.
Step, step.
Rohan took a couple of steps and stood before the tree.
'I have to release the mana in a sudden burst.'
Rohan searched through Rainer's memories.
Then he slowly raised his sword.
No, it only looked as though he raised it slowly.
CRACK!
He had thrust his sword only once, but two sword marks appeared in the tree.